CHRIS UHLMANN: Tony Blair allegedly offered to act as a secret advisor over the Murdochs' handling of the phone hacking scandal, a British court has been told.

Jurors in the phone hacking trial at the Old Bailey have been told that the former British prime minister spoke on the phone for an hour to News International executive Rebekah Brooks in July 2011, just days before she was arrested, telling her, among other things, to "keep strong".

And he also purportedly advised on how to organise an inquiry like the one that exonerated his government from any wrongdoing over intelligence reports in the Iraq War.

Mr Blair says he was just giving informal advice.

Europe correspondent Mary Gearin reports from London.

MARY GEARIN: There were supposed to be just a few housekeeping matters for the prosecutors to wrap up before the jury heard the case for the defence. But as it happens, they dropped a bombshell.

The chief prosecutor read to the jury an email he said was from Rebekah Brooks to James Murdoch, then executive chairman of News International. It's dated six days before her arrest.

In it, Ms Brooks writes she had an hour-long conversation with former British prime minister Tony Blair in which he offered to become unofficial adviser to her, Rupert and James Murdoch but that, quote, "needs to be between us."

At the time Mr Blair was close to the Murdochs and was named godparent to one of Rupert Murdoch's children just two months after this call was purportedly made.

According to the email, Mr Blair also recommends Ms Brooks should form an independent unit with a serious forensic criminal barrister and to get them to investigate her and publish a Hutton-style report.

That's referring to the report that cleared the Blair government of wrongdoing over the flawed evidence that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the so-called "dodgy dossiers".

According to the email Mr Blair advises Ms Brooks that she should publish part one of that report at the same time police close their inquiry and clear her and to accept shortcomings and new solutions, releasing the second part later.

It's an explosive link with the Hutton report which was highly contentious in the UK. A poll at the time found that 56 per cent of Britons believed it was a whitewash.

And it's potentially embarrassing for the UK Labour party. This email was written and this call allegedly took place less than a week after party leader Ed Milliband called for a full inquiry into hacking. Less than a month later Tony Blair himself was publicly denouncing phone hacking as "beyond disgusting and sickening".

Mr Blair released a statement shortly after proceedings ended for the day at the Old Bailey. He says he was simply giving advice over the phone and did not know the facts of the case - that "in a situation as serious as this it was essential to have a fully transparent and independent process to get to the bottom of what had happened."

He says "that inquiry should be led by credible people, get all the facts out there and that if anything wrong were found there should be immediate action taken and the changes to the organisation made so that they could not happen again."

Ms Brooks and the other defendants deny all charges.

Jurors also heard that Mr Blair told Ms Brooks to "keep strong", to "tough up", that he recommended sleeping pills so she can have a clear head, and to "remember no rash short term solutions as they only give you long term headaches".

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